E3 2008: Into Hell's Highway Once More

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Ubisoft and Gearbox's World War II sequel finally set to ship soon.

By Jason Ocampo

At this point, we've written no less than 10 previews and features about Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, so there's not much more new to the game that we could talk about. The game was playable at Ubisoft's booth in PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 forms, and I played around with controlling an assault team and a bazooka team to outmaneuver and flank German infantry. There was also a chance to peruse the upcoming mass market paperback novel based on the game that is written by John Antal, the retired US Army colonel and author who is also a member of Gearbox's development team. Plus there's a comic book coming soon, as well.

I've always liked Brothers in Arms's tactical gameplay, which is a departure from the run-and-gun style of almost every shooter on the market. You have to think each encounter through, thinking on your feet as you maneuver fire teams into position, having them provide cover for one another, and engaging the enemy yourself with rifle fire and grenades. It's as close as gaming gets to real-world fire team tactics.

The controls take a bit of getting used to, especially if you've played other shooters (say, Halo or COD4). You either have to get used to the BIA controls (I had to restart several times after inadvertently throwing a grenade into the middle of my squad) or reconfigure them on the options screen. After a battle or two, though, you'll be commanding squads with confidence. Of course, it also helps to have a real-life Army colonel behind your back and encouraging you. I'm looking forward to the updated graphics of Hell's Highway, and it'll ship in the next month or two.